SQL is almost English; it's made up largely of English words, put together into strings of words that sound similar to English sentences. In general (fortunately), you don't need to understand any arcane[more…]

You just can't write scripts without making certain mistakes. The trick is to train yourself to recognize them, roll your eyes, say, "Not again," and just fix them. One error message that you'll see many[more…]

PHP is a general-purpose language that can be used to write general-purpose scripts. Scripts are computer files containing instructions in the PHP language that tell the computer to do things, such as[more…]

PHP and MySQL are open source software. If you've used only software from major software publishers — such as Microsoft, Corel, or Adobe — you'll find that open source software is an entirely different[more…]

When writing PHP programs to create your Web database application and communicate with a MySQL database, you have many things to remember. You must spell code correctly and use perfect syntax. This Cheat[more…]

You’re developing Web pages using PHP & MySQL, and because you’re developing Web pages and/or databases, you need to write WHERE clauses so that you can sort through data. The following list shows the[more…]

Doing Web development with PHP and MySQL, you need to use MySQL functions to run your subroutines, whether you’re writing a connect routine or a query. The following list shows the format for these functions[more…]

Using PHP and MySQL to develop your Web site and/or database gives you lots of tools and lots of options, but you have to become familiar with how each program operates so that you can properly format[more…]

The PHP language provides functions that make communicating with MySQL extremely simple. You use PHP functions to send SQL queries to the database. You don't need to know the details of communicating with[more…]

PHP is a scripting language designed specifically for use on the web. It has features to aid you in programming the tasks needed to develop dynamic web applications. This table provides a brief overview[more…]

When you're working with PHP scripts, you sometimes need to compare character strings to see if they fit certain characteristics, rather than to see if they match exact values. For example, you might want[more…]

The behavior of PHP is controlled through an initialization file called php.ini. Settings such as how sessions are handled, how errors are displayed, and what modules are available are all controlled through[more…]

Template systems can reduce the amount of work that you need to do in PHP to make a website. When you make a website, you frequently use the same layout for the entire site. You have a top portion, maybe[more…]